Introduction

From the day Microsoft Windows 10 launched, I have been inundated with the same question:

"How is storage performance on Windows 10?"

We are sure a lot of our readers want a definitive answer, so that's what we are going to examine today. We are upgrading our consumer storage test rigs to Windows 10, so going forward all TweakTown consumer SSD reviews will be performed utilizing Microsoft's latest and greatest operating system.

To fully answer the question, we will also need to examine the performance of different drivers and the impact they have on Windows 10 storage performance. We will look at SATA performance utilizing two drivers, RST 13.6 and RST 14.5. With Windows 8.1 our favorite single SSD driver is RST 13.2, but that driver is not compatible with Windows 10. Intel's RST 13.2 driver requires .Net 4.5 and you cannot install .Net 4.5 on Windows 10. We tried our best to install .Net 4.5, but Windows 10 comes with .Net 4.6 pre-installed, which prevents .Net 4.5 from being installed.

We will also look at PCIe NVMe performance and compare the performance of Windows 8.1 to that of Windows 10 utilizing an Intel 750 400GB AIC SSD. Intel provides a proprietary driver for the 750 series and we will be utilizing that driver for both Windows 8.1 and 10. Most of our focus will be on SATA performance and we will briefly examine Windows 10 PCIe NVMe storage performance.

We saw a significant storage performance downgrade when we moved from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. Will the same trend continue, or will Windows 10 provide equal or better storage performance than Windows 8.1? Let's find out.

PRICING: You can find the 400GB Intel 750 NVMe PCIe SSD for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing, but can change at any time. Click the link below to see real-time pricing for the best deal:

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